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Church Marketing Blog

Church marketing personnel need to be up-to-date with the latest church marketing strategies and resources to successfully implement the church / parish marketing plan. This church marketing blog enables church marketing personnel to engage in blog discussions relating to the church marketing issues of today. The 'Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed)', 2011, by Bryan Foster, forms the basis for most of these blog posts.

The difficult, challenging question posed by an interviewer will often occur at a media interview - it needs to be responded to during the interviewor shortly afterwards.

The last resort is the, "No comment," response. If time is needed to
gain an accurate response, then advise the interviewer that you will
find the answer and get back in as reasonable time as possible.

In theChurch setting this can be quite a challenge,
particularly when church personnel are not experienced to receive such
requests or skilled with the necessary response techniques. There is
also the inherent fear of damaging the Church's hard earned reputation
if the response is incorrect or not given in a credible way.

Below is a suggested response for the Church marketing personnel. This includes:

• Being prepared for the interview and anticipating negative questions
• Interview techniques to assist

* Have an eexperienced expert media / PR advisor working closely with you and your church through these difficult times. These people be church employess or outside consultants.

Be Prepared - A Response Method

• Anticipate the sort of negative questions which might arise and prepare good responses.
• Have your key 3-4 positive points you would like to make.

It may also be necessary to make arrangements with the interviewee prior
to the interview, and before the journalist arrives, that the Church
Marketing Manager would interject respectfully if the interviewee was
getting particularly stressed or confused during the interview. This is
particularly necessary if the person being interviewed is a child /
student. There is always a duty of care to assist the child firstly and
respond to the interviewer only secondly.

Key techniques during the interview when asked a difficult question requiring a response are usually:

1. Acknowledge the weakness (apologize if needed)

2. Agree that plans are afoot to improve the situation

3. Continually revert back to the 3-4 key positive points you want to make.

The Serious or Controversial Issue - Interview

Dealing with a serious or controversial issue involves having staff well
trained with important interview techniques. These techniques are
usually coordinated by the church's authorities who have qualified staff
to train urch personnel.

The techniques above would often form the basis for such difficult
interviews. These interviews often result from alleged controversial or
illegal incidents, involving staff or parishioners.

These days the difficult media question is a stock question of the
journalist's profession. There is nothing better for a church's
reputation when these questions are responded to well and those being
informed through the interview see a professional approach being shown
and implemented. Be informed, prepared and skilled with the various
interview techniques.

The 'The Difficult Media Question During an Interview - a Response' blog post was written by Bryan Foster, author of Church Marketing Manual for the Digital Age (2nd ed),
- the paperback and ebook manual for Church communications and marketing
personnel - 304 pages of easy to read and implement summarized
points, which allow for a considerably large number of quality stategies and examples to be
detailed
and
available for church marketing personnel - with copyright
remaining GDPL. Book available from Amazon.com and Createspace.com and all good bookstores.

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